Malayalam is natively spoken by about 45.6 million people, primarily in the Indian state of Kerala and among Malayali communities in the Middle East, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It is integral to Malayali cultural identity, known for its literature, classical music, and performing arts traditions like Kathakali. Written in the Malayalam script, Malayalam grammar features a subject-object-verb (SOV) word order, extensive use of case markers for nouns, and a system of verb conjugations that indicate tense, aspect, and mood.